Gold Rush Buck Shot Root Beer was a fun root beer to drink. It came in an ice-filled tin mug, the dispenser was an adorable oak barrel, and the leering carnies of the Rib Fest circuit made the experience feel oh-so-authentic. Unfortunately, the quality of the root beer itself was lacking. It tasted like regular canned root beer: syrupy, cheap, thick and unoriginal. There were some hints of vanilla and sarsaparilla (and wintergreen according to Rasputin, although I failed to detect it), but overall it lacked complexity. The reviewers disagree on the ice. Aristophanes feels that the ice did the root beer a service, raising the score from 2/10 to 4/10. Rasputin disagrees, instead feeling that the ice did a disservitude to the flavour and demonstrates Gold Rush’s lack of pride in their product. In any case, we both agree that Gold Rush Buck Shot Root Beer is immensely fun and suits the Rib Fest atmosphere perfectly, but it is not an upstanding root beer in its own right.